Project Kairos Brazil and Beyond
Brazil…
Introduction
Brazil is a ‘melting pot’ of nations with much intermarriage, so rigid
categories of ethnic origin are difficult to assess. The main ethnic groups are
European 54% (mainly of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German origin),
Mixed race 34%, African 11% (descendants of slaves brought from West
Africa and Angola), Asian 1% plus significant pockets of Japanese, Arabian, Chinese and Korean. In addition there are
the Amerindians, in 1900 there were 500,000 in 230 tribes, but now there are an estimated 240,000 in 200 tribes. *
Evangelical population
There has been steady growth amongst evangelicals in Brazil for 15 years or more, especially amongst Pentecostal and
charismatic denominations and groupings. Brazilian Government figures from the 2000 census estimated that 15% of
the popultation of 170 million were evangleicals with an annual growth rate of more than 5%. Many believe these
estimates wto be very conservative and growth has continued unabated since then, although some areas and people
groups are not experiencing this growth.
Brazilian Missions
There has been a rapid growth in the Brazilian missionary movement in recent years and it is now a key sending
country for Christian workers. However, there is still a need for a maturing process to take place, especially within the
‘new’ churches and those who work outside of traditional mission agency structures. Attrition rates are variously
estimated between 7%-15% per annum. “The five primary causes of undesirable attrition are inadequate training, lack
of financial support, lack of commitment, personal factors such as self esteem and stress, and problems with
colleagues. The major attrition causes focused on character problems and not skill limitations, which will have a great
impact on Brazilian training programs.”** There is great need of a tool such as Kairos to assist this maturing process.
The missionary potential of the Brazilian church is immense: many Brazilians have natural ethnic links back into Europe
and some have understood the calling of the Brazilian church to be ‘evangelists to the world.’
Kairos
Originally developed as the Condensed World Mission Course (CWMC) in the Philippines in 1994, Kairos is the current
international version. It has proven to be a significant ministry tool in mobilising the church for missions. For example,
over 12,000 Filipinos have been through the CWMC and huge mission mobilisation has resulted in all thirteen Muslim
people groups in that nation having a viable church; and the Philippines now ranks as one of the top ten missionary
sending countries of the world. Kairos is a ministry of World Outreach and is endorsed and supported by World
Outreach UK.
Kairos/CWMC has also been introduced and used successfully in Albania, Australia, Botswana, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and Thailand and is being introduced
into Japan and Romania.
The opportunity to develop Kairos for Brazil and beyond materialised when it was discovered that much of the CWMC
material had been translated into Brazilian Portuguese by a Japanese girl who had seen the need for such a mission
training tool whilst serving God there. Through connections in the UK with Brazilian churches and missionaries the need
for such a programme is now widely acknowledged.
…and Beyond
Portuguese is the seventh most-widely spoken language in the world and, beyond Brazil, is the principal language of
Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome, Macau, and East Timor. A Portuguese Kairos
would be a potential tool for the churches in these nations as well – we already know of contacts in Mozambique who
are waiting for a Portuguese version of Kairos!
Additionally, there are significant Portuguese speaking communities, especially in North America and Europe, which
include many believers who are without any missionary vision. The vision for a Portuguese Kairos includes its use
amongst UK and European based Brazilian missionaries and ex-patriot church communities.
* Operation World 2001
** Excerpts from “Too Valuable To Lose”, William D. Taylor http://www.missionfrontiers.org/1999/0102/jf9911.htm
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Strategy and Timescales:
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Raise awareness of Kairos with Brazilian contacts and UK based Brazilian missionaries; March 2006 and ongoing
Complete translation and dubbing of course materials – June 2006
Run 2 courses in the UK for UK based Brazilians and Portuguese speakers: publicise from April 2006, courses
August/September 2006. One course possibly with South Coast churches and Brazilians.
Review and refine translation: Autumn 2006/winter 2007
Train Portuguese speaking Facilitators: Autumn 2006/winter 2007
Translation of Leaders’ Guide Facilitators’ Training Course: Autumn 2006/winter 2007
2/3 week trip to Brazil April/May 2007 to raise awareness of Kairos, run the first course there and train the first
indigenous facilitators
Establish a Brazilian Field development group who will be the strategic enablers for this next stage of the pilot
phase. These will be those who are potential coordinators and head facilitators in geographies or church
networks/denominations or mission agencies or people movements. This team will eventually develop the national
structure for leadership and development of Kairos Brazil: May 2007 onwards
Establish a UK based Resource team to serve the Field Team through mentoring, training Facilitators, fund-raising
and supporting new courses: May 2007 onwards
Second trip to Brazil to run 2/3 courses in strategic locations: Autumn 2007
Budget
Translation of Course materials
Dubbing of teaching and other DVDs/videos
Pilot course subsidies
Translation of Leaders’ Guide Facilitators’ Training Course
Printing costs for pilot courses
1st trip to Brazil – travel costs
2nd trip to Brazil – travel costs
Project administration
Total
£1,000.00
£800.00
£1,500.00
£1,000.00
£300.00
£4,000.00
£3,000.00
£4,800.00
£16,400.00
We are looking for donations towards this project. One off gifts or regular standing orders for the duration of the
project should be sent to:
Kairos, Cordelia House, Westfield Road, Burley, Leeds LS3 1DG.
Cheques should be made payable to KAIROS. Forms for standing orders are available on request. UK taxpayers can gift
aid donations – these should be made payable to World Outreach and marked for Kairos project Brazil.
Kairos Brazil and Beyond is a joint project between Kairos UK (www.kairoscourse.org.uk), Wolrd Outreach UK
(www.wouk.org) and Bridge the Nations Network (www.btnnetwork.org)
Project Team:
Linda Harding – Director
Ron Viner – Coordinator
Yoshie Yamamoto and Anderson Lima – Translators
General enquires about the project should be directed to
ron.viner@ntlworld.com
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